Boredom and its psychological consequences : a meaning-regulation approach.

This thesis by publication documents the results of a three year PhD research project investigating boredom. Even though boredom is a common experience that has been suggested to hold major implications for life and society, surprisingly little research has been conducted on its experiential character and its consequences. The research presented in the current thesis sought to fill this void. Following the observation that boredom involves a lack of perceived meaning in one’s activities or circumstances, it was hypothesized that boredom triggers selfregulation attempts aimed at re-establishing a sense of meaningfulness. Five articles are included that detail the results of a systematic study of boredom and the effects of this ‘meaning-regulation’ process on a variety of important factors. After introducing the broader theoretical framework in Chapter 1, the four studies of Chapter 2 confirmed that bored people experience a lack of perceived meaningfulness and are motivated to engage in meaningful courses of action. Chapter 3 includes five studies that help define meaningful behavior from an expectancy-value perspective. Consistent with the notion that social identification contributes to a sense of meaningfulness, the five studies reported in Chapter 4 indicate that boredom leads to polarization of in- and outgroup attitudes. The seven studies included in Chapter 5 reveal that boredom can counter-intuitively make people act more prosocially, if this behavior presents an opportunity to act meaningful. The ten studies of Chapter 6 indicate that boredom increases feelings of nostalgia, and nostalgia subsequently contributes to bored people’s meaning in life. The overall findings, their implications, their limitations, and future research directions are discussed in Chapter 7. Overall, the research presented in the current thesis indicates that boredom increases social identification, prosocial behavior, and nostalgia, and these consequences of boredom can be explained according to a meaning-regulation approach.